Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the body’s Junior Doctors Committee, said: “The bottom line is that 16,000 talented doctors are caught up in a desperate scramble for a handful of training opportunities.

“It remains alarmingly unclear what will happen at the end of the month when junior doctors’ contracts end. If trusts do not have adequate plans in place for 1 August, wards may be understaffed and operations cancelled.

But the government was unrepentant. Health minister Ann Keen said: “The high fill-rate is good news for patients, the NHS and deaneries across the country, and has been achieved despite this year’s problems with implementing the national recruitment programme.

“We are working hard with the NHS on this second round of recruitment, and on the development of a package of support for those appointable applicants who have yet to find a post.”